Godrej Agrovet Q1 net profit rises 4.1% to Rs 105 crore

Godrej Agrovet on Tuesday reported a 4.1 per cent year-on-year increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 104.7 crore for April-June quarter.
 
The agri-business company's total income rose 28.2 per cent to Rs 2,003.2 crore, while earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 3.3 per cent to Rs 180 crore. EBITDA margin, however, contracted to 9 per cent from 11.1 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
 
The company said the second wave of COVID-19 in India has dented economic recovery. "Micro-lockdowns across states have caused slowdown in business recovery, however, situation is better than the same period in the previous year...more than 50 per cent COVID-19 cases in 2nd wave were in rural India, impacting rural demand," it said.
 
The demand from HoReCa segment declined sequentially, leading to lower prices for poultry and poultry products, commodity prices surged due to increase in demand in domestic and international markets, the company said.
 
The revenue of animal feed business grew 33.9 per cent to Rs 1,001.3 crore on demand uptick in feed categories -- cattle, broiler and layer -- coupled with price hikes during the quarter.
 
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Meanwhile, oil palm business also registered 83.5 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 288.8 crore. "Crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel oil (PKO) prices were high year-on-year in Q1FY22, resulting in strong growth in segment revenues and segment results. Oil extraction ratio also increased over the previous year."
 
While crop protection business saw a 15.5 per cent rise in revenue, the company said sales could have been higher, but good and early start of south-west monsoon followed by a long gap of 25-30 days affected sowing of major crops, thereby the demand for agrochemicals.
 
Astec Lifesciences, which manufactures a wide range of agrochemical active ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates, reported 14.9 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 128.7 crore, while sales of dairy business grew by 12.7 per cent.
 
"The second wave of COVID-19 has significantly impacted economic recovery seen in the preceding quarter, especially in rural India which had a much stricter lockdown...We expect recovery to be faster in the second half of the year, as vaccination percentage increases leading to the normalization of business activities," Godrej Agrovet MD BS Yadav said.
 
Shares of the company closed 1.98 per cent lower on Tuesday at Rs 678.65 on the BSE.

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